Monthly Report: Young People, Romantic Relationships, and Life Priorities
Check out our monthly newsletter about young adult trends on romantic relationships and how they balance these relationships with their professional pursuits.
Dating today can feel like a minefield for observers and participants alike. Romantic relationships are fraught with many of the cultural tensions affecting American society writ large, and the ways people are managing these tensions can be both inspiring and bewildering. How young people navigate this terrain can have important impacts on their communities, as family life remains an important cornerstone of much of American society.
Many churches around the country emphasize the need for good family ministries, assuming that in doing so they can attract the young families in their communities. But where are all these young families? As the average age of first marriage increases, and many couples are choosing to have fewer kids (a trend exacerbated by the cost of living crisis), many communities seem to have an ever-dwindling number of young families. Add to this that there is less pressure than ever to hurry-up-and-get-married, and many churches are now finding more and more single people in their pews with fewer tried and true ministries to support them.
What are some of the factors driving later marriage and fewer kids? Why are some people putting off these major life milestones in favor of remaining single? How are young people exploring their options in romantic relationships and making decisions about their longterm future? These questions and more will be some of the central questions we address in this month’s newsletter.
Our Young Adult Ministry Trend Report is a reader-supported publication, and so we kindly ask you to consider becoming a paid subscriber (now only $5/month or $30/year). Our March/April newsletter is attached below as a pdf document and is available to all paid subscribers. A paid subscription will give you access to our entire archive of newsletters and bi-weekly posts. We aim deeply engage trends among young people and explore what these trends might mean for church leaders. Our September newsletter (Young People and Education) is available to free subscribers as a preview of the kind of content you can get with a paid subscription.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Young Adult Ministry Trend Report Substack to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.